Blakeman: Curran plan to send $375 checks to homeowners a 'political stunt'

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican challenging Nassau County Executive Laura Curran's reelection, denounced her proposal to send $375 to county homeowners making up to $500,000 using federal pandemic aid as a "political stunt to buy votes."

Curran wants to devote $100 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to send cash to some 300,000 property owners who qualify for New York's School Tax Refund exemptions, known as STAR. She introduced the idea during a news conference on May 17.

But on Monday, county officials said they had to meet with U.S. Treasury Department officials to clarify if payments could be made to all of the homeowners who are eligible for the exemption.

In an interview with Newsday on Tuesday, Blakeman, a Hempstead Town councilman and former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, said: "I absolutely think it’s a political stunt to buy votes when if she was sincere, she would have cut taxes, and then it would have been done on an equitable basis and it would have affected everybody."

Blakeman accused Curran of offering the cash payment idea as a way to distract from her reassessment program. In December, Newsday reported that under reassessment, school tax bills were expected to rise for 65% of property owners, according to county data.

"To just say everybody got injured during COVID-19, 'I'm going to give them a $375 one-time payment,' I think is very suspect, and basically, it's not fair to people who have had their taxes increased by thousands of dollars," Blakeman said. "The $375 dollars is not going to make them whole again."

Instead, he said he believed the funding should have gone to lower property tax bills. " And if the federal government does not allow it to be used for tax relief, then it should be used specifically for individuals, businesses and not for profits that demonstrated they were materially injured as a result of COVID-19," he said.

Mike Fricchione, county spokesman, said in a statement that Republicans "would rather hold political press conferences" than work with Democrats. "We invite them to work with the County Executive to get money into the hands of middle-class families in Nassau. They would rather hurt our homeowners and blame others, than work to get the job done," he said.

Shelby Wiltz, campaign manager for Curran, said in a statement: "If Bruce Blakeman doesn't believe that $375 would help a Nassau County middle-class family, he's spending too much time in the Hamptons."

At a legislative hearing on Monday, Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said his staff learned last week that the plan to pay all STAR recipients violated federal guidelines. Chris Boyle, a GOP spokesman, said Nassau special counsel Conal Denion relayed that message.

But Fricchione said Denion never made such a statement.

In interim guidance published June 17, the Treasury Department said governments can make cash payments to individuals with the aid, "provided the recipient considers whether, and the extent to which, the household has experienced a negative economic impact from the pandemic."

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.